Spring is undoubtedly an authentic cycling festival that begins in March and ends in late April, before giving way to the grand tours. There have been many races starting from Omloop Nieuwsblad, through Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders with Paris-Roubaix, and ending with Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which brought down the curtain on this extraordinary start of the season. Every week we witnessed authentic duels with winners and losers, and just like at an international film festival, we can imagine handing out awards to the various protagonists. We have reasoned and evaluated in a completely impartial manner, but of course readers are free to disagree with our choices and propose different solutions.

If we were to assign the award for best screenplay, without a shadow of a doubt, it would go to Through Flanders. After the blow dealt by Visma-Lease a Bike's numerical superiority, we saw Neilson Powless caught in the grip of Wout van Aert, Tiesj Benoot, and Matteo Jorgenson, but they, instead of exploiting their numerical advantage, decided to bet everything on Van Aert's sprint. Never was a choice more wrong, because Powless was the fastest and beat Van Aert. From a sporting history perspective, this is undoubtedly the most original.

Staying with Through Flanders, Van Aert was reluctantly the protagonist of the most dramatic moment of spring. The Flemish rider, often accused of being too generous, even making his teammates win too easily, for once chose himself, thus becoming the selfish one in the situation. Van Aert had told Benoot and Jorgenson in the finale not to attack because he wanted to sprint to win. The result was the most moving confession in cycling history: "I didn't want to risk one of my teammates winning, and it was a huge mistake – Van Aert said after the race – I thought too much about myself and not about the team. I'm not like that. There are no excuses for this, and it's entirely my fault."

The best protagonist of spring award, without doing injustice to anyone, we think should be awarded to two riders: Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar. Both were authentic phenomena, winning two Monument Classics each in the same season, so to satisfy various fan bases, the Dutchman and the Slovenian were the best protagonists of the cycling spring. In the end, we think it would be impossible to say that the winner of Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix is better than the one who won Flanders and Liège.

The award for the best protagonist never appearing in the race goes to Eddy Merckx. The Cannibal was the most mentioned rider character of 2025. Pogacar was compared to Merckx several times, as was Evenepoel, but for us, Eddy is still the greatest champion, continuing to win even after he stopped racing.

The UCI ranking strategy award goes to XDS Astana. On paper, Aleksandr Vinokourov's team is not one of the strongest, but at the end of this spring, we find them in third place in the UCI ranking, behind Lidl-Trek and UAE Emirates XRG. XDS Astana won six not top-tier races, but the choice to focus on gaining points to avoid relegation from the WorldTour has paid off so far.

The best comeback award rightfully goes to Remco Evenepoel. The two-time Olympic champion crashed into a postal truck's door last December while training and was forced into a long period of stoppage. Recovery required a lot of work and patience, and his return to racing was on April 18th at the Brabantse Pijl: Remco returned and won immediately, and just two days later finished third at the Amstel Gold Race. Then came the ninth place at Flèche Wallonne, and although he struggled at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he undoubtedly made a truly great comeback.

Regarding the worst supporting actor, the award unanimously goes to the cycling amateur who Sunday inserted himself into the course of the women's Liège-Bastogne-Liège. When Pauliena Rooijakkers turned around thirty kilometers from the finish, she saw an idiot pedaling behind her as if nothing was wrong.

And after the awards given for sporting results, the last title we want to assign is best original costume to Uno X, which, with an amarcord idea, presented itself at Liège-Bastogne-Liège with the colors of 7-Eleven, the American team that raced in the 80s and used bikes produced by Eddy Merckx starting in 1989. Uno X - which shares the roads of Norway and Denmark with 7-Eleven, managing 107 service stations - thus decided to pay homage to the Cannibal and Liège-Bastogne-Liège for the 50 years since his first victory at the Doyenne.